A Russian-Indian expedition led by RAS Corresponding Member Natalya Polosmak discovered high in the Himalayas (Kashmir province, India) two ritual complexes with unique unknown stone figures of the early Middle Ages, Vyacheslav Molodin, deputy director of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the SB RAS, told reporters on Thursday.
He said that the expedition had been working in India for three years, and the last year had given "fantastic" results. This year, scientists worked in a difficult region of the Himalayas on the border of India and Pakistan with funding from the institute, a grant from the Russian Science Foundation and the Henkel Foundation (Germany).
“Two ritual complexes were discovered here, far and high in the mountains, where it is not easy to reach. Sanctuaries of about 200 stone horsemen were found, and their specificity is that sometimes not one person is sitting on a horse, but two, three or four people.
That is, this is the embodiment of some mysteries and myths that have yet to be read. All these sculptures are voluminous, richly decorated with carvings,”Molodin said.
He noted that all sculptures, although made in the same style, differ from each other. In the same place there are water sources and stone structures associated with these figures.
“It seems that everything in India has been known for a long time, but in fact these things have been found for the first time. There are no publications about this, and the scientific community first learned about it. The find shows that we still do not know everything on the planet. There are absolutely unusual places that have yet to be explored,”the scientist said.
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Molodin said that according to the assessment of the head of the expedition Natalia Polosmak, the sculptures belong to the era of the early Middle Ages, that is, the beginning of our era. This is evidenced by the decoration of the horses and other details.
Early medieval stone figures discovered in the Himalayas
“But what kind of population it is is a big problem, because nothing of the kind has ever been found in iconography in India. This is some kind of population that suddenly appeared in the Himalayas, settled in hard-to-reach areas and left such a mark after itself,”the expert noted.